Last Wednesday has witnessed a special occasion for football fans in Saudi Arabia. The Spanish team Valencia, one of Europe's strongest sides, has visited the country to play a friendly match against the local champions Al-Hilal, in honor of Yousef Al-Thunian, the former captain of Al-Hilal and the national team, who retired two years ago.
I was so excited to go to King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh to watch the match, and to see some of my favorite football stars closely. With names such as Santiago Canzares, Pablo Aimar, and Mesta, I was afraid that Al-Hilal would not be able to compete with Valencia. However, the Saudi team was good enough to defeat the expectations, and outplayed the Spanish side, winning 2-1.
Of course, Valencia have not played their best until the last 15 minutes, when they scored their only goal, but still, Al-Hilal's victory was a good accomplishment, at least from a psychological and historical points of view.
The event was almost perfect, but it was disturbed by some Saudi hooligans, who disrupted the beautiful picture when they started throwing half-empty water bottles, 10 minutes before the end of the match. This was not the only annoyance at the match. I don't know how or why, but every time I go to the stadium, I find myself surrounded by some idiots and psychos who think a football match is a good opportunity to show off their misbehaviors in public.
I hate it that we don't have a football culture here in Saudi Arabia, and it was very embarrassing to look this way in front of our guests whom we invited to honor our own player. It is a shame that instead of giving foreigners a nice image about our country, we throw bottles at them. # »
I was so excited to go to King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh to watch the match, and to see some of my favorite football stars closely. With names such as Santiago Canzares, Pablo Aimar, and Mesta, I was afraid that Al-Hilal would not be able to compete with Valencia. However, the Saudi team was good enough to defeat the expectations, and outplayed the Spanish side, winning 2-1.
Of course, Valencia have not played their best until the last 15 minutes, when they scored their only goal, but still, Al-Hilal's victory was a good accomplishment, at least from a psychological and historical points of view.
The event was almost perfect, but it was disturbed by some Saudi hooligans, who disrupted the beautiful picture when they started throwing half-empty water bottles, 10 minutes before the end of the match. This was not the only annoyance at the match. I don't know how or why, but every time I go to the stadium, I find myself surrounded by some idiots and psychos who think a football match is a good opportunity to show off their misbehaviors in public.
I hate it that we don't have a football culture here in Saudi Arabia, and it was very embarrassing to look this way in front of our guests whom we invited to honor our own player. It is a shame that instead of giving foreigners a nice image about our country, we throw bottles at them. # »
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